Pennsylvania Democratic lawmaker Brian Sims stirred up a hornet's nest when he posted a video of himself rebuking anti-abortion protestors outside a Philadelphia Planned Parenthood clinic. In the video, Sims upbraided the protestors and called them "Bible bullies." Anti-abortion activists, in turn, hurled the pejorative right back at Sims.

The fallout of Sims having posted a video of himself rebuking protestors outside a Planned Parenthood clinic in Philadelphia has included calls for his resignation and sparked a demonstration. Even Planned Parenthood isn't a fan of advocates for a woman's right to choose don't like it when well-intentioned counter-protestors take on those who might form a gauntlet for a woman in already-harrowing straits to have to navigate; as Planned Parenthood's senior director of communications, Erica Sackin, put it, "From a distance, protests, and counterprotests look the same to a patient who's just coming in to get health care."

But even in the current era of surreal political and social tensions, the claim by one Sims critic that Sims isn't really gay stands out as cray-cray.

In a tweet, Right Wing Watch reposted a video made by a pundit named Brendan Dilley — whom Right Wing Watch characterized as a "MAGA activist" — and summarized the content of the video with text that read, "Dilley insists that Pennsylvania state Rep. Brian Sims is not really gay and challenges him to 'suck a dick' to prove otherwise."

MAGA activist Brenden Dilley insists that Pennsylvania state Rep. Brian Sims is not really gay and challenges him to "suck a dick" to prove otherwise. pic.twitter.com/qq6YLhAaJA— Right Wing Watch (@RightWingWatch) May 10, 2019

The video begins as do so many arguments from the hard right when the subject is LGBTQ people: With a denial of another person's innate sexuality, a subject that only the person in question could possibly be qualified to comment on authoritatively.

That's right: Rumor. In a time when facts are to be shrugged at, what more is needed?

In any case, the "rumor" Dilley takes to be the truth is that Sims strategically pretends to be gay in public "because it provides coverage for his behavior."

Dilley did not elaborate, but past episodes of Sims' controversial conduct have included posting a video in which he welcomed famously homophobic Vice President Mike Pence to Philadelphia with a raised middle finger last June and, the following month, lambasting the New York Times for a political animated cartoon that depicted Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin as a gay couple. Sims called the cartoon "homophobic" on Twitter and demanded, "What on Earth makes you think that equating the love that millions of people across the planet feel for one another to the unconscionably criminal relationship between these two is OK?!?"

Dilley may not have specified what conduct he meant, might have meant, but he came up with a precise motive for why Sims might pretend to be gay: "Because he knows that anybody who goes against him can be accused of being a bigot" for doing so, as long as Sims projects a publicly gay identity. In sum, as Dilley went on to say, "the rumor... is that this motherfucker is straight!"

That, of course, would be news to Sims' male partner, Brandon McMullin.

Dilley's curious theory disregards the fact that Sims came out as gay in 2000, while he was still in college, and long before he was a politician. Moreover, Sims worked with the Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund until 2011, when he first ran for public office.

But why let facts, evidence, or reason stand in the way of an old-fashioned "Jackass"-style challenge, such as the one Dilley threw down?

"We should demand we see him suck a dick before we'll believe he's gay," proposed the pundit. "You're not gay, dude! Suck a dick!"